Implications of recent geological investigations of the Mozambique Channel for the mammalian colonization of Madagascar

Abstract

Madagascar separated from continental Africa during the break-up of Gondwanaland early in the Cretaceous. The presence of several terrestrial mammalian groups on Madagascar is paradoxical as (i) these groups postdate the departure of Madagascar from Africa: and ii) terrestrial mammals are poor dispersers across wide water barriers. Recent geological studies focusing on the Davie Fracture Zone of the Mozambique Channel offer a resolution to this situation, by suggesting the presence of a land-bridge from the mid-Eocene to the early Miocene, an interval that matches the ages of Madagascar's mammalian groups.